


Reflections of Those I Love

by catisacat



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 18:57:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5837176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catisacat/pseuds/catisacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Max is super hyped for her photography final: to shoot personalized portraits of everyone in Arcadia Bay she cares about.</p><p>She has five planned. Warren, Kate, Nathan, Victoria and of course Chloe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflections of Those I Love

**Author's Note:**

> There's a decent chance I'll draw pictures for this later, if so I'll link them here or you can just find them on my tumblr, catisacat. \o/

Max was super hyped for her photography final.

The new photography teacher had shown up just in time to assign it.

Max was thankful for that. The substitutes had tried their best but one of them seriously assigned them a project that was literally just “flowers.”

Seriously, their only prompt was “flowers.”

Granted, the class was full of geniuses so they’d come up with amazing stuff but that really wasn’t a terribly creative springboard. Max and Victoria had worked together on that one, taking mirrored pictures in a field of flowers.

Max and Victoria had grown close ever since the wailing sirens of the cop cars came to Blackwell to take away Nathan, then later Jefferson. The former had been released into a pricy mental facility, the latter had been given life in prison.

Max had found her crying in the courtyard, staring up at the sky. Ever since that night she’d found the popular girl hanging off her arm more often than not.

That assignment felt eons away though. Sunset in a field of flowers with a girl she once hated. The blonde had even helped her pick a large bouquet of bright blue flowers for Chloe. They’d made a game of it, racing each other from flower to flower. Rolling and tumbling through the technicolor dreamscape.

Okay, so maybe the assignment hadn’t been that bad.

But the final? They were assigned to think about the common themes of their photography, then do the opposite.

For Max, the Un-self Proclaimed Selfie Queen of Blackwell, it was obvious.

She would shoot personalized portraits of everyone in Arcadia Bay she cared about.

A few photographers traded their equipment to even better suit the theme. Max was a bit nervous as she handed her second favorite camera to Victoria, even though she trusted her completely by now. There was a mutual understanding that the camera from Chloe was off limits though. Victoria had even made it a point to request the first one Max had used in class. Claimed it was a nostalgia thing but Max knew the rich girl just didn’t want to intrude on something so personal.

They’d spent the night teaching each other how to use the cameras. They’d taken silly pictures of each other, rolling around Max’s room like a pair of sloppy puppies. Both had happily pinned them to their own respective selfie walls.

For this project, Max had five sets of portraits planned.

The sun was bright and the sky was clear as she briskly walked towards the boy’s dorm with Victoria’s camera in hand.

She looked out at the courtyard in front with a smile, today was going to be perfect for the shot. It was early and the sunlight was glistening off the dew in the grass. Fresh and happy.

Speaking of, she looked up just in time to see Warren almost bouncing with anticipation.

He’d all but skipped over, two large bags dangling from his hands, which he was now displaying proudly, “Maximus Prime! I got the stuff, as the lady asked.”

He bowed as he presented the bags to her and awaited further instruction. He let her lead him to a dry bench as she sat him down and positioned him into a perfectly upright position. He laughed as she tapped his back.

“Stop it! Ticklish,” he demanded as he obediently straightened his spine.

Max reached into the closest bag, looking over her shoulder with a smile, “Did I not tell you these were torture portraits? Gotta make you as uncomfortable as possible.”

“Ha ha, very funny. So Max, oh Master of Comedy, how many people are getting the star treatment? Or am I the main attraction?” Warren said, smile quickly creeping onto his face as he flexed non-existent muscles.

“You get to be the first but not the only,” Max said, grabbing his arms and returning them to his lap as she placed his computer in his hands, “Kate’s getting one, Victoria and Nathan too. I’ve also got something really special planned for Chloe’s.”

She chose to ignore the fact she could feel him tense up at the last name but he spoke about another, “You’re really sending a lot of time with Victoria lately.”

“Jealous?” Max chirped in reply, reaching up and adjusting his hair so it no longer hung limply in front of his face.

A subtle shift underneath her nimble hands told her he was.

He shook his head though, undoing her work on his hair, “No! Just curious. I mean, you used to hate her and uh, I’m still kinda…”

“Nathan was going through a lot, Warren. You promised you’d try to let it go.”

“I’m working on it, Max Attack. Getting there. Slowly.”

“You better be. Can’t have my friend hating each other. Passive tolerance at least, Warren.”

He nodded, letting her open up the laptop he was holding and bring up one of his favorite movies to display while she shot. She worked quickly, pulling more items out of the bag. Movie cases, video games, microscopes and other science equipment. A few other personal items here and there. Max smiled as she placed a few pictures of her own she’d taken around him.

She stepped back to make sure everything was perfect as Warren spoke through gritted teeth, holding comically stock still, “Max quick! Take the picture before I get stuck like this!”

Before he could even remove the goofy tensed up grimace from his face Max snapped a shot.

His face dropped into surprise as a click betrayed a second photo, “Hey! Hey! I wasn’t ready!”

“Get ready, then,” she said, smiling wide. He quickly mimicked it, exposing as many teeth as physically possible. It was exaggerated and silly but frankly it was the most honest portrait of him she could display to the world.

She took a few more but she knew those first three were going to be perfect. She’d try to replicate that in the others, capture an array of emotions.

It took Max a few minutes to help Warren carry everything back to his room, waving as she headed back over to the girl’s dorm. Knuckles softly rapped on the door as her second model carefully cracked it open.

Kate was a bit embarrassed by Max’s offer but she was also incredibly flattered.

In the end, she’d said yes but as Max stepped into her room with the camera in hand she got all flustered, the photographer noticed, “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Kate.”

The quiet girl shook her head immediately, “No! I do, I’m just… I’ve never really had someone take my picture. Well, I mean, I have but not in an artistic way. More of a ‘here’s Katie at her cousin’s wedding!’ thing with my family.”

Max’s reassuring hand gripped her shoulder, “It’ll be okay. Just think of it like that. I just want to show you to people too.”

Kate nodded, letting Max carefully take out her bun. Long, wavy brown hair collapsed around her shoulders as she laid down on her back as they’d previously discussed. Max carefully arranged the cloud of hair around her before getting to work, carefully grabbing things from around the room to position around her friend.

“Have you ever done anything like this before?” Kate inquired as she gently wrapped her tiny hands around what felt like her bible. Had she looked down she would have known she was correct, more specifically she’d been handed the ornate one her dad sent her after… well after what happened.

Max shook her head as she multiplied the number of cross necklaces strung around Kate’s neck, “No, not really. I mean, I’ve taken pictures of other people obviously but never like, sat down and staged it. It’s kinda fun.”

Granted, she still preferred spontaneous shots but it was kind of cool to help present everyone’s personalities like this. She’d already layered Kate in religious symbols, now carefully clutching a stack of her drawings. Max rifled through them, picking her personal favorites as well as ones she thought represented the girl.

Kate was much quieter than Warren had been but that wasn’t unusual. A chatterbox and the quiet little church mouse. She’d spent many silent nights with Kate, just quietly cohabiting the room. It was peaceful.

As Max stepped back and examined her work the little rustling creature caught her eye.

“Hey, would you be okay with your bunny being in the shot? Or would she try to run?”

The bright spark in Kate’s blue eyes betrayed her excitement, “Oh no! She’s really docile. Here, come put her up by my shoulder, she’ll just snuggle in.”

Max smiled and clinked open the cage, gathering up the tiny creature in hands before depositing it in the expanse of brown hair gathered around her friend’s shoulder. As the religious girl had predicted, it had curled up happily into the crook of her neck and returned to slumber.

Kate giggled as she felt Max hop up on the bed, feet gently placed on either side of the lying girl’s ankles. She didn’t hesitate as she grabbed that moment before Kate could get self conscious.

That of course came next, her eyes averting as she looked a bit uncertain. Another picture.

Eventually she dragged her eyes back up to Max, a small smile creeping across her lips as she asked, “Is this alright?”

Third picture.

“It’s perfect, Kate.”

Helping the artist clean up was much easier, given the fact they never left her room. In a quick flurry of movement they had everything back in its place.

After a tight hug Max headed down the hall towards the room with the cracked open door.

Victoria was waiting for her on the bed, holding up a manicured finger as she finished her phone conversation. Context clues made it obvious the rich girl was making sure that their visit with Nathan was still on board. She was doing her final project with him too.

She looked a bit irritated as she ended the call, “Augh, fucking amateurs. Alright Maxine, we have to. Haul. Ass. over there right now. They’re insisting he go to group therapy at seven and that’s like. Three hours from now.”

Max had no time to respond as the girl’s ever surprisingly firm grip trapped her wrist, dragging her towards the parking lot.

It had been hard to swing the photo shoot in the first place. They’d only been allowed on the virtue of Victoria’s heritage. The Chase family gets what the Chase family wants. They’d been given permission to even be alone with him. Which was so against policy there, you don’t even know.

They arrived in plenty of time though, a weary Nathan greeting them at the door.

As Max became closer to Victoria it became obvious that Nathan was a part of the package.

She’d been initially uncomfortable with it. Unbelievably uncomfortable. He’d been hostile, even at Victoria’s insistence that he ‘oh my god, lighten up.’ He’d slowly become more vulnerable around her. Maybe she’d used some of the knowledge from during her time travelling adventures to help open him up. Shut up, it’s not creepy.

Max had done it for Victoria though, she knew that she wasn’t the only one who suffered from all the events this past year.

Nathan hadn’t hesitated snaking his arms around Victoria’s shoulders. As Max watched her friend return the hug she wondered if they really were related in anyway. She’d always wondered, it seemed like all the old money families intertwined at some point.

The blondes released each other and Nathan turned to her, guilt in his eyes.

Oh, had she not mentioned that when his anger left soul consuming guilt took it’s place? Because it absolutely, aggressively did.

It hid itself though as she raised her arms for him to give her a hug as well. It was much briefer than the one for Victoria but the ironclad grip was the same. Like a survivor clinging to their last hope of salvation.

The other photographer chirped up when they separated, pushing them towards Nathan’s room, “We have to hurry! Two photo shoots! Two!”

Upon arriving in the room they started setting up for Victoria’s shoot first, since Max’s would disturb his room. It was set up very similar to his dorm in Blackwell, Max noted. Pretending she didn’t know that information was always difficult.

Max watched silently from a corner as Victoria worked. She’s always loved watching other people’s artistic process and the blonde girl was a particularly meticulous worker.

Victoria’s shoot was a lot more dramatic. Dark, moody lighting. Instructing Nathan not to smile, which frankly wasn’t an issue for him right now. She’d shared her concept with Max on the drive over. Guilt and Redemption. For the girl it was a drastic step away from her more beauty focused images.

The shoot was over quickly, Nathan was a very compliant model. Max tried not to think of the depressing implications of that but it was too late.

As Victoria finished her shoot Max got ready for hers. She lit up the dark room with the bedside lamp, everyone flinching at the sudden light.

“Sorry!” Max said, putting her torso between the blondes and the light, “Just need a little more light for mine.”

The two nodded as they continued to shield their eyes.

Nathan continued to be a perfect model, letting Max position him with his back to the light to cast a dramatic shadow across his face.

Victoria helped her set up. Frankly she was a big help considering how much closer the girl was to Nathan. She knew just which items to set where. Max was honestly a bit surprised when the girl pulled out an obviously very well loved teddy bear for him to set on his lap.

The final effect was perfect.

Nathan’s face was almost completely obscured, as well as the stuffed toy on his lap.

Littered around him were his photographs and mementos of better times. He’d even allowed Victoria to place some of his scratchy, erratic drawings around him. It was all too clear he wasn’t home with the clinical white wall behind him, devoid of art or any personality.

The first picture was of this, Nathan covered in darkness surrounded by pieces of both the good and bad times.

He lifted his head as Max instructed, “Okay, good, look at me now.”

His face was still empty though on the second shot although his body twisted towards her better revealed the threadbare bear on his lap and the happier souvenirs his best friend had placed around him. Max wondered if Victoria had done that on purpose.

The third was quick, a capture of an errant movement as Nathan looked behind him.

He looked afraid.

“I’m sorry.”

He apologized to Max a lot but that one hit her as particularly genuine.

They wrapped up the photo shoot quickly as the doctor arrived, pushing out the photographers in an irritated huff as she set about cleaning up his room. Her mutters of concerns about him being late to group therapy faded as they walked down the hall.

The drive home was nearly silent. Uncharacteristically awkward small talk about the things they passed.

The sun was starting to set as they pulled into the parking lot and returned to the dorms.

Victoria disappeared inside for a second before reemerging with a few bags of her own. She lowered herself down onto the steps and Max couldn’t help but recall the paint incident. It was and always will be freaky to her that she had memories that technically didn’t exist.

Max tried to put it out of her mind as she carefully arranged the items around her friend. She really didn’t like to think about the time she spent as a time traveller. A magnitude of reasons. One being that it was tempting to fool around with again. She was fairly certain she still had her powers still but hadn’t tried to use them since.

It was the most quiet photoshoot yet.

Not a single word was said until Max started, snapping the first picture of a posing and smiling Victoria lit up by the fiery hues of the sunset.

“Do you want me to come with you for Chloe’s too?”

Max snapped another picture, capturing the look of nervous trepidation on the blonde girl’s face as she offered that. She took a second as Victoria’s features twisted into a look of pure agitation. So far it’d been the quickest set of three, although Max intend to put these ones out of order. Angry, nervous, smiling would suit the theme better.

“That was a serious question, Max,” Victoria snipped, smoothing out her skirt although she knew that the girl had gotten the shots she’d wanted.

After a second of admiring the pictures of the last few shoots in the viewfinder Max answered, “No, I’ll be better if it’s just me and her. Joyce let me dig through her room and pick the items out myself. Besides, I’m gonna have to be a little bit a ninja to pull that one off.”

Victoria winced as Max winked.

The rich girl carefully stood up, stepping around the items to bring Max into a tight embrace.

They stayed like that for a while, just long enough for the last beams of sunlight to extinguish as the massive full moon started to rise. It was perfect for Chloe’s shoot.

The girls waved at each other as Max disappeared into the darkness.

The photographer checked that everything was in the bag when she reached her car. One of Chloe’s favorite beanies, her favorite CDs, pictures from their childhood, miscellaneous odds and ends that helped further show Chloe’s vibrant personality. She’d also brought some candles although she’d have to be sneaky to get them all lit without being noticed.

Max found herself hugging the items to her chest with a smile, letting her face nuzzle into them and smell the all-too-familiar scent of cigarettes and cheeseburgers that always lingered around the punk girl she loved so much.

She set it back down in the passenger’s seat though, she knew she didn’t have much time.

Within a matter of minutes she was there, quietly creeping towards where Chloe lay.

She took a photo of that first. Untouched, untampered.

It took her a while to get all the bright yellow candles lit but thankfully she wasn’t noticed as they slowly lit up the items as Max was carefully placing around her girlfriend. The last thing she did was reach up and take off the bullet necklace, placing it gingerly in the center, on top of where Chloe was.

Stepping back she took the second photo of her all lit up, surrounded by the things she’d loved. Absolutely perfect.

Max jumped as a blue butterfly flew in front of her, landing carefully on top of the tombstone.

Before the photographer could take a picture it flew away from the gravesite, flying higher and higher away from the cemetery all together.

Max swore under her breath before looking down at her hand.

That would have been the perfect third shot.

The perfect picture to eulogize Chloe.

One last time couldn’t hurt.

Max reached out her left hand, feeling the familiar strain of the stream of time pulling against her as she forcefully rewound it. She stopped as the butterfly started flying to the grave once more, pulling out her camera and catching it the second it landed on the headstone again.

Her hand started trembling as she looked at the picture in her viewfinder.

Just like that first picture, the one that started it all.

Tears fell even faster than Max did as she collapsed to the ground in front of the stone bearing the name “Chloe Elizabeth Price.”

As she lay in the grass that had grown over Chloe’s gravesite she knew she’d have to get out of here before someone saw. She wasn’t sure if it was illegal to visit graves at night and she didn’t want to find out.

But for now, just for one second, she looked up at the sky.

Her heart ached as she watched the butterfly ascend, disappearing from view.

She reached her left hand out once more to twist time, bidding it to return to her.

Nothing happened.


End file.
